By SCOTT LOCKWOOD
TBARA.net
SAMSULA, FL – For nearly three quarters of Saturday night’s TBARA Sprint Car Series presented by Safety-Kleen’s 30-lap feature event at New Smyrna Speedway, Dude Teate looked as if he was well on his way to his first win of the season.
Unfortunately for Teate, a mechanical failure less than a lap from the finish of the race brought his car to a slow halt and allowed Ben Fritz to sneak by and grab his first win of the season.
Rod End Supply Heat Race 2 winner Johnny Gilbertson started on the pole and led the first seven laps of the race with Teate right on his tail. Teate pulled to Gilbertson’s outside at the end of lap eight and quickly pulled away from the rest of the field until a caution for debris bunched the field back together with 11 laps to go in the race.
Teate pulled away on the restart and had the win in sight until another caution flag flew for Larry J. Brazil’s accident fell three laps from the finish. On the restart, Teate got away while Fritz passed Joey Aguilar for second. As the white flag flew, Teate said he was simply worried about keeping the car straight until it shut down coming out of turn two just a half lap from the finish line. Fritz got by and went on lead his only lap of the night for the win, his first at New Smyrna.
“I was wondering what the hell he was doing,” Fritz said about the final lap. “On that second to last restart, those two (Teate and Aguilar) checked out and I didn’t have anything for them. I was worried about holding Dave Steele off. With two laps left I thought we were going to finish third and the brakes had gone out in the car. It’s a big deal to win at this big track.”
Teate was credited with a 10th place finish after leading 22 laps. His car came to a stop at the top of turn three as Fritz was taking the checkered flag.
“I was going down the back stretch and it just shut off,” Teate said. “The spud that runs the fuel and the power steering pump broke because when it shut off, I lost power steering too. That was all she wrote and I was watching everybody go by me. This car was on a rail all night and it was right on the money.”
Aguilar, who said he had some “unfinished business” at the track after losing the September feature at the track on a late restart, finished second in his first race back since he suffered burns to his hands and legs at a fire at Desoto Speedway in Bradenton last month. He said after the race that his heavily-bandaged hands felt great.
“Dude Teate was the class of the field and he was a little quicker than us, and I hated to see him have that problem,” said Aguilar, who added that his car started running out of fuel with two laps to go. “We had a second-place car and we finished second anyway…but I hate finishing second that way. This is a great comeback for us, but we wanted the win to take care of that unfinished business.”
Scotty Adema finished third, followed K&N Heat Race 1 winner and TBARA points leader Dave Steele and 15 year-old Garrett Green. Green started 15th in the feature and had worked his way into the top five in the first 10 laps, including a move where he dove to the apron to pass Steele in turn three.
The TBARA will finish their season on Dec. 7 at Orlando Speedworld.
The Finish :
16- Ben Fritz, 11- Joey Aguilar, 67- Scotty Adema, 33- David Steele, 3- Garrett Green, 51- Mark Gimmler, 39- Mickey Kempgens, 85- Rex Hollinger, 55- Tommy Nichols, 31- Dude Teate, 22- Johnny Gilbertson, 2- Larry J Brazil Jr, J1- Mike Tharp, 9- Matt Alfonso, 63- Terry Taylor, 56- Bobby Rose, 19- Keith Butler
